anyone tried to compare sound of new sigma delta DAC's with good old multibit ones like PCM1704 or AD1862 ? How different they sounds ?I wanna make new good sounding DAC project and I am curious about DAC type to use .
Also any suggesion about best opamp for I/V . Is it AD811 or maybe OPA627 or AD8610 ?

Everyone of the DAC's you have mentioned are among the best in market. I think the major differencies are how they are "interfaced" and how many components around they need....and how easy they are to solder!

A look into the recent past reveals some good (actually great )discussions on discrete designs. A number of folks (me included) beleive that op amps (with lots of negative feedback) are not the optimum device for the I-V circuit positition.

Try here and here for starters. I'm sure there are many other discussions in the archives.

Good luck and share your progress!
mlloyd1

Quote:

Originally posted by Vil
... I wanna make new good sounding DAC project .... Also any suggesion about best opamp for I/V....

Glad you mentioned the AK4395. I am using the AK4393, its 96 kHz sister. This is a balanced voltage out DAC that can drive directly into 600 ohms: No need for a nifty I/V converter. I am driving directly a good output transformer with this tiny piece of plastic. This is sounding very good. And relaxed if you can say so.

Originally posted by mlloyd1 Did you really want the "best op amp for I-V" or the "best IV" ?

A look into the recent past reveals some good (actually great )discussions on discrete designs. A number of folks (me included) beleive that op amps (with lots of negative feedback) are not the optimum device for the I-V circuit positition.
[
mlloyd1

Hi Mlloyod1,
I do believe it is not the negative feedback that is detrimental to sound but the design of the IC as I have excellent sound from my discrete opamp with as much feedback as the IC. I don't have a explanation or a theory for this and wished it was the other way around
But see also http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.pl?f...es&r=&session=
for a possible explanation. I also did this experiment with the three supply voltages with my discrete design and it did not make any difference to sound! Hey Michael, is that you who pops up in that old thread??

yep, it's me
I was hanging around in some of these audio related discussions in the netnews groups years before www existed. It's kinda fun to search deja news from long times back and see some of the stuff that pops up.
mlloyd1

Quote:

Originally posted by Elso Kwak
... Hey Michael, is that you who pops up in that old thread??

Glad you mentioned the AK4395. I am using the AK4393, its 96 kHz sister. This is a balanced voltage out DAC that can drive directly into 600 ohms: No need for a nifty I/V converter. I am driving directly a good output transformer with this tiny piece of plastic. This is sounding very good. And relaxed if you can say so.

Not yet, I do not have a digital camera at hand. But when I have the occasion I will put up one.

It is a modified M-Audio Superdac. For 260 EU I could not make it myself. I am busy putting a x-tal locked low jitter clock in it a la Guido Tent’s tube DAC. The line transformers are type 3603 from Sowter.

i'm very intrigued by your use of a X-former for the AKM DAC! i was just thinking about doing the same the last few weeks and just came across this thread.

i very much like the sound of the AKM DAC as used in cheap Sony DVD/SACD players, and would like to replace the whole opamp output stage of the Sony with a single transformer, followed perhaps by a JFET buffer. in this manner i can achieve buffering and low-pass filtering in one clean (and feedback-free!) stroke. what type of transformer are you using? i was thinking of getting a 10k:10k Jensen transformer, which has bandwidth of 2Hz to 80kHz or so, and a desirable Bessel function filtering effect above the passband. how does this idea sound to you?

regards,
dorkus

p.s. oops, duh, i just saw what transformers you are using in the post above. i'll take a look.